First of all, it's like a 1.73ghz CPU which I can't run at its full potential.
Right now, in the bios the CPU is set on a clock of 100MHZ which makes it run like a 1.3 I think. And even at this, the temp of the CPU with a cooling fan which it came with AND that grease stuff that goes between the cpu and the cooling block is at around 61'C!!!!
That's pretty bad and on top of that, I got my system fan right next to the CPU also!!!

When i set in the BIOS the 133MHZ so that my 1.73ghz will actually run like a 1.73ghz cpu, windows freezes everytime on startup as soon as it reaches the desktop. And guess what? @133MHZ in the bios, the temp goes up to ~67'C!!!!

What else?

I have a music video in *.mpg format that runs perfect on P1 computers. But on this athlon, the sound is terrible!!! Synthesized!
I have 3 other computers in which this exact video runs perfect with perfect sound. And all these computers are way older and slower.
Even *.avi files had that terrible sound till i downloaded wmp 7.1 but the *.mpg didn't get fixed...
(by the way - mp3's play fine)

When I go to directX setup it's showing an athlon @1150MHZ because in the bios it's only at 100MHZ... And if i put it on 133MHZ - again, I wouldn't be in windows right now hehehe

But in directX when i press on "sound" tab and "test direct sound" it tells me this: "your sound card does not support hardware buffering. Sounds will only play back from software buffers"
What does this mean?
Is this why the mpg files are synthesized?

That's my built in sound card that came in the motherbord... POS!

Do i have enough reason to return all this and try a different motherbord and CPU?

Could i be having all this trouble because it's athlon xp and i'm running win98SE?

PS - i did all the live updates - nothing helped...
PPS - reinstalled the soundcard drivers many times - didn't help.

Dunno, maybe its a motherboard problem, memory issue, or just a plain bad CPU.. as for the temperature issue maybe the cooler isn't seated well or just not big enough for the athlon, sounds like you have a huge mess with a bunch of issues, what memory you using?

I have a cheap $32.00 ECS motheboard running an 1.2 Tbird and it tests out way faster than my p4 1.7 If your sure you have all the settings correct and it still doesn't work return it... It should run heck of a lot better than that....

noamkrief, some of your questions have been answered in your previous thread
***********.cdrom-guide.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=142072
I have 1 of these boards with a 1700XP cpu using the onboard sound and it works fine now i have sorted the cooling out.
I think a lot of your problems may be how you are setting it up and driver instalation. As i said b4, it will NOT run at 1.73!!!!! it is rated at 1.53Ghz at 133mhz clock!

Maybe a silling question, but have you got your CPU on the right way round, so the core is in the best position? (I made this mistake when I got my 1.4 Athlon, and it ran at around the same temp as you've stated until I turned it round.....it looked the right way to me!)

[i]Originally posted by Matt [/i]
[B]Maybe a silling question, but have you got your CPU on the right way round, so the core is in the best position? (I made this mistake when I got my 1.4 Athlon, and it ran at around the same temp as you've stated until I turned it round.....it looked the right way to me!)

If so, looks like a cooling issue..... [/B]

Just curious. How the hell did you get it the wrong way round?????
It's a ZIF socket and will only go in 1 way. To get it to fit that way you must have had to force it in.

If you are getting 1.73Mhz, then your CPU must be running at 13X clock multiplier, the correct setting for this CPU should be 11.5x133FSB, but as the motherboard has no facility to overclock, I seriously think you may have a hardware problem.

I would suggest, first to update the BIOS from the ECS site, as the overheating seem like the CPU is running way too high then it should, we have many XP1800 running on the same board, with temp range from 40-50.

But it does sound like many of your problems are rised from this, you may also try reset the BIOS with the onboard jumper, and choose in the BIOS, load optimal settings, and see what you get, if all else fail, return to sender